Calls for command agric funding

The command agriculture programme, an initiative meant to provide food self-sufficiency as well as restoring the country’s status as the bread basket of the Southern African region can only be restored if funds are availed timeously.

There are also numerous opportunities for investment in the agriculture sector as the boom in the sector also entails that there are spin offs in the manufacture of equipment such as driers, ploughs, fertilizers, seed, chemicals as well as beneficiation.

The Business Council of Zimbabwe president, Mr Langton Mabhanga said Zimbabwe can also exploit the hunger for agricultural commodities, especially of an organic nature on the international market.

The drive to ensure food self-sufficiency must be a national issue that rallies all Zimbabweans together to ensure that it becomes a reality.

The private sector too is instrumental in the drive to further propel the agriculture sector says entrepreneur, Mr Witness Mangwende.

Agriculture expert, Mr Isdory Kembo highlighted that farming is premised on planning and suggests that time frames as to what to grow, when, where and by who have to be followed to the latter.

Mr Kembo added that only when such plans are followed to the latter, can the country produce enough and even have a surplus to sell to generate the much needed foreign currency.

Globally, the drive towards food self-sufficiency has seen countries such as Israel investing billions to turn deserts into green belts.

There is also consensus that Zimbabwe must leverage on the climate that makes it possible to grow crops all year round.

The abundant rains that the nation received have also been cited as a positive boost that the country must utilise to achieve a bumper harvest.